Photo from NickPiggott's photostreamOnce again I am looking at the possibility of making cheese on a very small scale, which has brought up the subject of milk. Real Milk.
What is Real Milk? It's certainly not what is available to buy in most stores, and it's difficult to make good cheese from store milk.
Many years ago, Americans could buy fresh raw whole milk, real clabber and buttermilk, luscious naturally yellow butter, fresh farm cheeses and cream in various colors and thicknesses. Today's milk is accused of causing everything from allergies to heart disease to cancer, but when Americans could buy Real Milk, these diseases were rare. In fact, a supply of high-quality dairy products was considered vital to American security and the economic well being of the nation.
What's needed today is a return to humane, non-toxic, pasture-based dairying and small-scale traditional processing, in short . . . A Campaign for Real Milk. The Weston A Price Foundation is waging a Campaign for Real Milk across the country and their website explains all about milk much better than I can.
The consumption of raw milk is legal in every State, yet its sale is currently illegal in about half the States. Want to know the laws in your state? Click here.
Cow shares are legal in Virginia (where I live) and last summer I made a half-hearted attempt to find a local place to buy one share and did indeed find one. In the end, I did not buy it because it would have given me far more milk once per week than I could use, a 75 mile round-trip to fetch it, and a price I considered too high since the share required an initial investment as well.
Now that time has passed and I am continuing to learn more and more about health from real foods, it is time once again to look for a source of reliable, healthy raw milk. This year I might actually try my hand at making cheese if I can find real milk!
To that end, I'm looking at the possibility of joining a Weston A Price Foundation Local Chapter. They can help find local milk products, butter, eggs, organic and biodynamic local produce, as well as grass-fed chicken and meat.
I hope you can find milk close. I am still trying to get my mother in MT, milk from Idaho.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty lucky to be where I am, and 2 women who sell milk here very close to me have offered to show me how to make cheese.... Cheese! Is Exciting!!! (wierd but I think you can relate..) I've always known how to do cottage cheese, but not CHEESE. Did you know it takes SIX GALLONS OF MILK to make four pounds of cheese? At 7/gal avg til I have my own, that could get pricey indeed....
LOL, I knew it would take a lot of milk, but not exactly how much. I want to get a milking Devon but really don't have enough pasture. I'll probably get a milk goat (and a companion) once I get some fencing up the hillside.
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